Man Indicted On 38 Counts Of Sex Crimes Involving Juveniles

By

Gretchen Gregory - The Logan Daily News Editor

Dateline

Logan, OH

Updated Wed, Nov 20, 2013 2:19 pm

Thirty-seven-year-old James A. McManaway of New Straitsville is being held at Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail in Nelsonville on a $200,000 cash or surety bond after more than 300 nude photos of children were discovered on his computer following a five-month-long investigation by the Hocking County Sheriff’s Office.

McManaway pleaded not guilty to all 38 counts in Hocking County Common Pleas Court Monday morning.

He faces two counts of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles and an additional 36 counts of pandering obscenities involving a minor for the photos of nude children allegedly found on his computer by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

Although 300 photos of nude children were allegedly found, he was indicted on only 36 of them.

“We picked some of the worst ones because some may have merged at sentencing, (and) some may have been borderline and hard to prove they were minors,” explained Hocking County Prosecutor Laina Fetherolf.

When asked about bond, McManaway told the court he didn’t have anything to say. “I mean, I can’t go anywhere or do anything,” he said.

Fetherolf requested a high-cash bond due to the nature of the offenses using the Internet.

“I assume he has access to that at home, so whether or not he can go anywhere at home, we’re still concerned with the safety of those in Hocking County,” she told the court.

Hocking County Common Pleas Court Judge John Wallace set McManaway’s bond at $200,000 cash or surety and he must not have contact with juveniles or the Internet if he posts the bond amount.

Darrin Bryan is the father of one of McManaway’s alleged victims and works as a dispatcher at the Hocking County Sheriff’s Office. His teenage daughter is allegedly one of McManaway’s victims he contacted on the Internet.

“In March, I was checking my daughter’s Facebook page because she’s at the age where she’s kind of naïve, and I noticed this Allen Black name,” Bryan explained from the dispatcher’s desk at the Hocking County Sheriff’s Office. “It seemed harmless enough at first, but if you start reading between the lines, you can see where this was going. So I found his Facebook page.”

After viewing two sexually-oriented pictures on the suspect’s Facebook page, Bryan alerted HCSO Sgt. Detective Ed Downs there could be a child predator attempting to solicit his 14-year-old daughter.

From there, both Bryan and Downs started having conversations with the suspect on Facebook in an attempt to find out his real name.

“He invited her over to sleepovers and wanted her to go swimming,” Bryan said.

When the suspect admitted he had a daughter about the same age as Bryan’s daughter — and gave her name — that’s when Bryan and Downs came up with a name for their suspect.

Soon after, another alleged victim came forward and told law enforcement she had given her phone number to someone named Allen Black and received a text message that described very sexually-oriented matter, Bryan said.

In June, detectives executed a search warrant at McManaway’s Haydenville residence, where he lived at the time, and seized computers and other various electronic devices.

The computers were sent to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation crime lab for forensic review.

Three hundred sixteen nude images of underage people were allegedly located on his computer, along with 300 images of male genitalia, as well as images allegedly linking him to the two original juvenile victims.

McManaway had at least four aliases on Facebook, Downs alleged.

Downs, who is a parent himself, said that parents should monitor their children’s access to the Internet.

“Parents should have access to their user names and passwords and monitor on a daily basis and make sure their friends are legitimate,” he said. “Anyone with a suspicious name they need to inquire about.”

Hocking County Sheriff Lanny North said that while social media sites can be a fun way for their children to stay in contact with friends and family, it’s also important to monitor their activities.